


Finally

by alittlebugsheadx



Category: Riverdale - Fandom, bughead - Fandom
Genre: Bestfriend bughead, Comforting Jughead, F/M, Fluff, Hurt Jughead, In love bughead, Jealous Jughead, Little bit of angst, Love, Riverdale AU, Sad Betty, arguing bughead, broken hearted betty, bughead au, first kiss bughead, frustrated Jughead, hurt Betty, living in new york together, mainly Jughead's pov, secretly in love bughead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 06:43:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15551946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlebugsheadx/pseuds/alittlebugsheadx
Summary: Betty Cooper's boyfriends are all trash. All of them. Why she's self-destructive in this way, Jughead doesn't know. But what he does know is that his bestfriend deserves the world and he desperately wants to be the one to give it to her. So when he finds out that she was cheated on by her latest beau, will he finally snap?OR:Betty and Jughead are bestfriends, living together in NYC. She has a bad habit of dating guys that are no good for her. Will he finally break that cycle?





	Finally

“Okay so I’m thinking Chinese and Die Hard? How does that sound?” Jughead lent against the door frame as Betty opened the bedroom door to reveal her sympathetic demeanour. The pitiful expression on her face did not match her outfit. She looked absolutely stunning in a red, silk dress that was practically tailored to her beautifully toned body. Her buttergold locks were gently pulled up into a loose bun, letting a few strays brush her cheekbones. What he would kill for just to stroke his thumb against her soft cheeks. He attempted to clear his suddenly dry throat.

She sighed, “I’m so sorry, Jug. Joshua called his morning saying he can have dinner tonight so...”

_Right. Joshua._

Jughead tried not to let his disappointment show but his voice was a dead giveaway, “Oh, that’s cool. No worries then. You look beautiful by the way.”

_Push that feeling down. The one with your heart being torn to pieces once more. Do it. Just ignore it._

She thanked him and started listing ways she would make it up to him as she followed him into the main area of their apartment, “...and I promise, I absolutely promise that I’ll treat, too!”

_Unless Joshua calls saying he was available after all._

Jughead didn’t care if she treated.

“I would’ve told you earlier, but honestly, I didn’t know if these were concrete plans so why bother, you know-”

“It’s cool, Betts, honestly. Go, enjoy your night, you’re probably going to be late.” He plopped himself down on the sofa, turning the TV on.

She strapped on her heels and reached for her purse, “Okay, thanks, Jug. I’m really sorry again.”

She pecked his cheek before rushing to the door. He touched his cheek, still warm with her affection and the air was still filled her perfume. 

“Don’t need to stay up! Love you, bye!”

“Love you too.”

And she was gone. Just like that. Off on another crappy date with that prick, Joshua.

Jughead wasn’t the jealous type.

Well, maybe he was, but he wouldn’t admit that.

But Joshua really was a prick. He cancelled on Betty more than any man should ever. Whenever he wanted he would just call her up and she would be down for whatever they had planned. He would ‘forget his wallet’ often and he was the type of man that commented on what she ate and how much of it. He didn’t treat her like the princess she was. He was absolute trash.

Jughead had met him a few times. They didn’t get on. Jughead didn’t have a problem with showing what he thought of Joshua to his face. Joshua would come to the apartment sometimes when Betty’s car was acting up, but other than that, he never picked her up. Probably never held the door open for her. So those awkward moments that the two men would spend together, waiting for Betty, would be filled with them staring daggers at each other. It’s fair to say the hate was mutual.

Jughead never actually liked any of Betty’s boyfriends. That’s probably because they are always trash, and Jughead was in love with Betty. He doesn’t know why she’s self-sabotaging in that way. She’s turned down her fair share of men, for the most bizarre reasons.  _“He looks at me like he can see my soul, and it’s very disturbing.” “He talks about his feelings way too much.” “He always, always gives me wet kisses. It’s gross.”_

But the men she did go out with were always garbage. They had more flaws than anyone could possibly count. It was odd as to why she agreed to go out with them or why she was even attracted to them in the first place, but Jughead knew it was a soft spot, so he never tried to confront her fully on the matter. ~~Until tonight.~~

She had tried to do online dating, but that never went well for her.

Jughead personally thinks that true love is the kind of love where you bump into one another on the street and immediately have that connection. Or in his case, in the park, back home in Riverdale.

That’s where he and Betty met. She was searching for conkers, him a place to sit and read. They were 6 years old and yet he still remembers her bright, green eyes catching his, before she cleared his potential seating area of conkers. He wasn’t going to sit there, he was going to sit by another tree. But after she was so sweet he had to sit there. Then after that day, he came everyday and sat by this tree. She came the next day too, bringing her own book and sitting next to him. When she noticed that he only had a limited supply of books she started bringing two. And then she introduced him to the library, which was on the other side of town from him. Day by day, they worked up the courage to talk to one another, and that’s how they became bestfriends. After high school, they moved to New York together, going to college, getting their first jobs and buying this apartment.

It was his perfect fairytale.

Only problem was that she didn’t realise it.

~~Or so he thought.~~

Jughead’s concentration on the movie he could not name for the life of him playing on the screen was broken when a sniffling Betty unlocked the front door.

She pulled off her heels and slumped down the door to sit on the floor.

“Betty? What’s going on? What’s wrong?” He got up and walked over to her.

Sniffling, she looked up. Mascara run down her face, hair frazzled and her dress crumpled.

 _Joshua_.

Anger ran through Jughead’s veins. He was furious. He knew that dick was a pain in the ass but hurting Betty like this? Insanely stupid too.

“If that son of a bitch-“

“Jug, no.” She put her hand up to stop him from trying to open the front door, “Please.” She looked up at him with begging eyes.

He melted under her gaze and sat himself next to her. Pulling her into his embraces she cried into his chest.

“What did he do?” He asked quietly.

“I-I-went over to his place and I found...this girl opened the front door...in his shirt...”

Jughead clenched his jaw and shut his eyes. He pulled her in closer to him, and rested his own head on hers, inhaling the smell of her strawberry-scented hair. “I’m so so sorry, Betts. I really am.”

He hated this. He hated seeing her like this; this having been done to her. She never deserved it. She was so perfect in his eyes and yet she was always being hurt in the worst ways possible.

“I guess...I guess he forgot...Maybe I should have called-“

“No,” Jughead lifted up her chin to see her face. Still so beautiful.  _How is that even possible?_  “No. You can’t make excuses for him. He should never have...It isn’t your fault. You did not deserve this.”

Her bottom lip trembled and she nodded slowly, looking at him with her emerald eyes filled with hurt. He despised seeing her like this. So. Damn. Much. 

So broken. So fragile. 

“I’m going to go clean up,” she peeled away from him and stood up slowly. “Have you eaten?”

He pulled himself up, “No, I ordered Chinese though.”

She gave him a grateful look, “Sounds good. Thanks Jug.”

He gave her a pitiful smile as she left to go clean up.

Sighing, he ruffled his hair, picked up her purse from the floor and sat down on the sofa. He placed it on the coffee table.

Soon after she came out, in sweats and a t-shirt, her hair in a messy bun, makeup off and looking drop dead gorgeous. It was actually insane how someone could even look beautiful in three completely different states: glammed up; broken-hearted; and in pyjamas. But Betty, somehow, managed to always pull it off.

She plonked herself down next to him, grabbing a Chinese box that had come. They were bickering lightly about whether or not to watch Die Hard or a tv show, when her phone buzzed in her purse. They both stopped eating, saying the same thing through their eyes. She reached for it, revealing the caller, ‘Joshua’.

“No. Don’t do this, Betts.” He warned.

“But Jug-“

“No. He  _cheated_  on you for Christ’s sake!”

“I know but-“

“No. There is no buts. He doesn’t deserve any second, third, fourth chances.” He reached out, snatched the phone and walked behind the arm rest of the sofa. “For your own good,” he reasoned.

She sighed, rolling her eyes, “I could have at least heard him out.”

Jughead clenched his jaw, “No, Betty. He doesn’t deserve that! Why would you grant him that opportunity to redeem himself when we both know he is going to screw up again?”

She frowned looking down. She liked him, Jughead knew that. But he had literally just cheated on her.

“Look, Betty, I know you like him. But there are so many other guys out there. Better guys. Nicer guys. At least decent guys.” He pleaded with her.

She looked up at him, still without saying a word.

Jughead spoke quietly before he could help himself, “Why do you do it?”

She looked taken aback, “Do what?”

“Choose the worst guys on the planet.” His voice wavered with hurt for her hurt as well as his own but he hoped she didn’t catch onto that.

She scoffed, “I don’t choose to do it. I can’t help that-“

“But you do. There have been plenty of guys that would be good for you, yet you never choose them.”

She looked away, laughing bitterly, “You’re suggesting that I’m so self-destructive because I don’t want myself to be happy and that’s why I choose the wrong guys?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I guess I am.” 

_Wrong answer._

She was pissed.  _At least that’s better than crying_. She was clearly channelling her hurt into anger now, as a way of letting it off.

She stood up, “This is ridiculous, Jughead. I don’t  _want_  to be unhappy. Why would I want to be unhappy?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know? But I do know that your taste in men is pretty consistent so...”

She laughed again, “Oh you  _know_ , do you? Since when do you know everything about me? You’re the new expert, are you? You, the guy who hasn’t been with a girl in 3 years?”

_Totally uncalled for._

He sighed, “Betty, I’m just trying to understand why-“

She walked towards him, “Why I’m so self-sabotaging, yeah I got that Jughead. Maybe you focus on yourself now instead? Stop trying to tell me who I should date when really you haven’t been on a date yourself in ages.”

“Fair enough. Look, I’m just trying to look out for you. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“This dating stuff is a lot harder than it seems. You don’t just bump into someone and click. That’s not how it works in the real world. Get your head out of your ass.”

He scratched his neck, “Right, yeah-“

“No, Jughead.  _No_. It’s not my fault they turn out to be complete douches. I can’t tell before I even date them that they’re not right for me. But maybe  _you_  can? That’s what you’re saying right? Well, tell me, Jughead,  _who_  is right for me?  _Who_  do you see coming here and saying “Betty, be mine, I love you.”?” She said sarcastically and walked up closer to him. “Cause I don’t see anyone. Come on, Jug, tell me. Who is right for me-“

“Me,” he blurted.

She stepped back, eyes wide. “What?” She whispered.

_It’s now or never Jug._

He took a deep breath and ruffled his hair once more before making the best decision of his entire existence.

He stepped towards her and cupping her cheeks, brought her lips to his. She complied, surprised but content and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her. She smiled through the kiss, finally finding what she wanted all along. His lips were finally where they were meant to be: capturing hers. He felt his entire body go warm with joy, from his fingers to his cheeks, to his heart. He never wanted this feeling to end.

She broke away, leaning her forehead against his.

“I said,  _me_.” He repeated. 

She grinned, looking up at him, “And I say,  _finally_.” before pressing her lips to his once more.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this drabble :)  
> Check out my tumblr @alittlebugsheadx  
> Always up for a chat <3


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